N+0 (The Bike that Inspired my story)

Tati’s One Bike

I have a small piece in the March Issue of Bicycling, which is on newsstands now (are they still called newsstands? Maybe find where ever you buy your magazines) It’s about dedicating myself to owning one bike, an idea I picked up the now passed Tati Cycles.

The experiment didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked. Last March, the bike that was going to be the one snapped at the down tube, and fortunately I still had a nice road frame that hadn’t sold yet, which tided me over until I purchased the bike I have now, a BMC GFO2, I upgraded the parts on, going from a mix of 10 spd 105 and Tiagra to a mostly SRAM Rival Hydro build.

It was the bike Tati had at the time that really caught my attention, an old Honey single speed cyclocross bike. Now maybe a lot of what Tati did wasn’t strictly speaking factual, I believe it was the idea that mattered. It was one of the many that resonated with me.

Tati had the bike every where, California roads, Chicagoland single track, commutes, NAHABS rides. None of which I was there for, but the versatility of the bike, or rather the fact that the rider didn’t give damn about what he was riding.

I was tempted to just build up a single speed, but–for me at least–riding one around Seattle doesn’t make much sense. And so my bike is my take on the idea, and I intend to ride for the foreseeable future. Keeping it as my one bike. I have more important things on the horizon.